The daddy of a US Marine killed in a hit-and-run crash involving an unlawful immigrant is talking out after federal authorities arrested the person for a 3rd time as he as soon as once more faces deportation.
Martin Martinez-Ballinas, 38, a Mexican nationwide, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) July 22 after serving a federal jail sentence for illegally reentering the USA.
He now faces his third deportation, in keeping with federal authorities.
Federal officers mentioned Martinez-Ballinas was convicted in a 2017 crash in Maryland that killed 21-year-old US Marine James Ray Walden III.
After being deported in 2020, Martinez-Ballinas was caught making an attempt to illegally reenter the US in Texas the next yr and was sentenced to fifteen months in jail.
ICE eliminated him once more in October 2022 however mentioned he later reentered the nation undetected, blaming the Biden administration’s border insurance policies.
Brokers in the end arrested him in Maryland in December 2023.
ICE took custody of Martinez-Ballinas after he accomplished his federal jail sentence in New Jersey.
Walden mentioned Martinez-Ballinas was driving with out a license or insurance coverage when he crossed into his son’s lane and struck his motorbike head-on.
He mentioned he later discovered Maryland officers knew Martinez-Ballinas was within the nation illegally and that he had been arrested 5 instances between 2012 and 2017 however was launched every time.
Walden remembered his son as an achieved Marine and gifted intelligence analyst whose future was reduce quick.
“My son was 21 years previous. He was simply beginning his life,” Walden mentioned Friday throughout an look on “The Will Cain Present.” “He was within the Marine Corps. He labored for intel. He labored for the Nationwide Safety Company as a crypto analyst, principally Jimmy Spide with a pc.
“He was extraordinarily good at what he did. His NSA boss informed me that he was some of the gifted analysts he’d ever labored with. They usually have been wanting him, as soon as he obtained out of the Marine Corps, to return to work for them.
“And all that ended within the blink of a watch.”
Walden pushed again on calls by some Democratic leaders to abolish ICE.
“It’s obtained to be some of the insane concepts I’ve ever heard,” he mentioned. “I can’t imagine that they’re condemning our ICE brokers and our DHS for really doing their job and imposing the legal guidelines that Congress handed.”
When requested what his message was for politicians in search of to get rid of the company, Walden mentioned his son’s demise confirmed why immigration enforcement stays needed.
“You’re by no means gonna perceive the ache, the outlet in your soul that this brings till it occurs to you,” he mentioned. “And don’t assume that it will probably’t. It might probably occur to anybody at any time. My son was minding his personal enterprise. He’d gone for a experience after work, doing nothing improper, and his life was taken.
“You possibly can’t predict it, however you possibly can forestall it.”
Walden credited President Donald Trump for prioritizing immigration enforcement.
“I imagine that he’s in all probability going to go down as one of many best presidents on this nation,” Walden mentioned. “He stood by what he mentioned. He mentioned what he was going to do, and he’s doing it.”
